Political races to watch in 2011 *with updates*

Via Texas on the Potomac's Richard Dunham (no, Houston's municipals did not make his cut):

One sign of the off-year election malaise: The vote with the greatest national significance all year long might be a summertime presidential straw poll in Iowa.

[...]

The Chicago mayoral race

Can former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel come home again? The trash-talking, hard-charging Democrat is the favorite to replace Mayor Daley, but he can't afford to take anything for granted. The diverse field includes former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, Rep. Danny Davis, former Board of Education president Gery Chico and City Clerk Miguel del Valle.

Davis has already pulled out and called for African-American voters to support Moseley Braun against the Rahminator.

The Iowa Republican presidential straw poll

The most important vote in 2011 isn't even a real election. It's the Republican Party of Iowa's 2011 Iowa Straw Poll, set for Aug. 14 at the Iowa State Center in Ames. This is an early test of White House wannabes' organizational skills — and an early chance for presidential campaign "spinners" to practice their craft.

Iowa is Huckabee territory. He'll win this beauty contest, and I'll join others in predicting that the Huckster becomes the eventual 2012 Republick nominee.

Dunham's less intriguing picks are here. The only other item worth noting is that Dallas mayor Tom Leppert may step into a GOP primary for the US Senate in 2012. That would be against the enigmatic Kay Bailey, should she deign to stand again for re-election (I predict she will not). He'll be the only non-Teabagger in that race if he does, which means he'll get slaughtered. As far as that primary goes, pay attention only to those who prostrate themselves before the Tea Pees, such as the Williams twins ... Roger and Michael.

Jockeying  for Houston city council positions has barely begun, as several incumbent Democrats in both the statehouse and the courtrooms hit the unemployment line with the changing of the calendar. Some decisions will wait to be made until the redistricting maps for the four new 2012 Congressional seats are known, sometime this spring. Recently retired Sylvia Garcia would be at the top of anyone's list, to be sure.

My favorite municipal elections rumor du jour has former state representative Ellen Cohen considering a run for the 'C' seat being vacated by term-limited Anne Clusterfuck Clutterbuck, who's already not-so-quietly marshaling forces and funds for a challenge to Mayor Annise Parker.

Update III: Kuffner links to Houston Community News, which has more on this development.

Then there's good ol' Bill King, who's busy giving everybody on both sides "tips". Campos likes him, so he's not entirely friendless.

For those of you plugged in to the local rumor mill, what are you hearing? Let me know in the comments. Who -- besides Aaron Pena in the RGV, of course -- wants to run for Congress in 2012? And/or city council or mayor in 2011?

Update: Kuffner, as always, has more.

Update II:

In addition to former police chief and current City Council Member C.O. Bradford, one potential candidate that has warranted frequent mention is former Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Paul Bettencourt.

The "Taxman," as he often refers to himself, has grown into a foil for Parker on water rate increases and the city's upcoming fight to pass a drainage fee after it was mandated by Proposition 1, a referendum voters narrowly approved in November.

Parker didn't have much to say about a potential Bettencourt candidacy, except a dig or two:

"One can only hope," she said at her Wednesday press conference, laughing loudly.

Final Funnies of 2010

"It Gets Better": Texan of the Year

Our pick beats the living daylights out of the Dallas Morning News' choice, that's for sure.

The Texas Progressive Alliance on Wednesday named Fort Worth city councilman Joel Burns as its 2010 Texan of the Year.

Burns, who represents Fort Worth’s District 9, received international attention and acclaim in October of this year after delivering a speech at a Forth Worth city council meeting concerning suicide among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered youth as part of Dan Savage’s “It Gets Better” campaign.

In his speech, Burns spoke eloquently and emotionally about his own experiences as a teen facing bullying in Crowley because of his sexual orientation. Burns’ speech, which became an internet sensation, resulted in interviews on CNN, NPR’s All Things Considered, an in-studio interview with the Today Show’s Matt Lauer, and an appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres Show.

“Joel Burns’ speech did more to raise awareness of the difficulties LGBT youth in Texas face on a daily basis perhaps more than anything else this year,” said Vince Leibowitz, Chair of the Texas Progressive Alliance. “His courageous action in delivering this speech was worthy of recognition, and progressives everywhere should salute him,” Leibowitz continued.

TPA Vice Chair Charles Kuffner of Houston echoed these sentiments. “As progressives, we stand for equality for all people. It is rare that public officials have the courage to do what Joel Burns did,” he noted.

Burns, the first openly gay municipal elected official in Tarrant County, was first elected in 2007.

Burns joins past TPA Texans of the year including Houston Mayor Annise Parker (2009); the Harris County Democratic Party Coordinated Campaign (2008); the House Democratic Leadership Team of State Rep. Jim Dunnam, State Rep. Garnet Coleman, and State Rep. Pete Gallego (2007); and Carolyn Boyle and Texas Parent PAC (2006).

In addition to giving Burns its top honors, the Alliance also named Dr. Al Armendariz, Administrator for Region 6 of the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Texas DREAMers as Honorable Mentions.

Armendariz was recognized for cracking down on polluters in Texas in spite of immense political pressure from state leaders and corporations. Armendariz issued the first Emergency Imminent and Substantial Endangerment Order against a natural gas operator in Parker County which caused high levels of methane in private water wells.

The Texas DREAMers -- students and activists involved in supporting the DREAM Act through peaceful protest and other means -- were recognized for their work in Texas which has included everything from organizing phone banks to call and persuade U.S. Senators, to staging sit-ins and demonstrations at the offices of U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. The group has even staged hunger strikes in support of its efforts.

The Texas Progressive Alliance is a coalition of more than 50 of Texas’ most prominent netroots activists, blogs, and bloggers united to help further the progressive movement in Texas. Founded in 2006, the TPA is the largest state-based coalition of netroots activists in the United States and was instrumental in bringing Netroots Nation to Texas in 2008.

Additional nominees for our annual award included Ana Yañez-Correa, executive director of the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, and Texans Together/Houston Votes.

In a difficult year for Texas progressives, these individuals and organizations stood out for standing up to the onslaught of extreme conservatism the state of Texas and the nation weathered. They will no doubt continue to be under fire for expressing their views and championing their causes in the year ahead, and the TPA both salutes and stands with them.

Last Weekly Wrangle of 2010

The Texas Progressive Alliance hopes Santa Claus was good to you as it delivers the last blog roundup for 2010.

Bay Area Houston notices that Death Panels are starting in January.

Off the Kuff took a look at the election contest that was filed in HD48.

Letters From Texas told a little Christmas story from his childhood, to (unsuccessfully) prove that he's not a scrooge.

It seems the EPA and Big Gas agree on something: Hydraulic fracturing causes gas to penetrate into the water table! TXsharon caught Big Gas shooting themselves in the foot and exposed it on Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS.

If you want a lighter take on Texas's four new Congressional seats announced by the Census this week that includes calls for reform on how we do redistricting in Texas and Lord of the Rings references, head over to TexasVox.

WhosPlayin has mostly been quiet over the holiday, but is following how one gas driller, Titan Operating, has legal battles going on in the adjacent cities of Flower Mound, and Lewisville.

Over at TexasKaos, lightseeker talks about a recent story out of New Mexico. He asks a number of questions about abortion, choice and reality. Between the warring camps and what real people face there is an enormous gulf. See how you would answer his questions here: Abortion, Choices, and Compassion.

Neil at Texas Liberal wrote about federal money being used to improve the Galveston Seawall. Galveston County voted Republican in 2010. Where are the bake sales to raise the needed funds to improve the Seawall and to get the Feds out of Galveston County? Where are the citizen volunteers doing the work themselves? Where are the committed liberty loving citizens of Galveston County living up all the talk of self-reliance and local governance?

Maligayang Pasko, pinsans

JFGI

Bonus Christmas Funny: An interview with the Nativity Inkeeper

More on Keystone XL, radioactive pollution, and DREAM

-- Charles Kuffner and Swamplot both linked to my posting regarding the Keystone XL pipeline and the environmental future of Houston's East End (like Hair Balls, Swampy was on the case back in June). FOX26's Ford Atkinson and videographer give you a look at ground zero and its residents. Ken Fountain posted also and Pin Lim has several photos from our tour.

Once again you can sign the petition to oppose the pipeline here.

Update: The news today that EPA will assume the permitting responsibilities for clean air guidelines from the TCEQ is good news for everyone in Texas who breathes. And likely bad news for Keystone XL.

-- Radioactive water in Houston isn't the only concern, if you can believe it (there's arsenic and a few other things as well), but you have to wonder if this news from Texas Vox isn't somehow connected to the local radiation developments...

Harold Simmons, whose company owns this dump, has spread his cash far and wide, giving Governor Perry over $1 million since 2000 (making him the governor’s 2^nd largest individual donor) and funding campaigns for every member of the Texas Supreme Court among others. While Simmons gets to make billions off this waste, Texans will get the responsibility for managing it for 10,000 years and cleaning it up...

"The three words that best describe you are as follows, and I quote..."

Update (12/30/10):

A Texas judge ordered a temporary halt Thursday to a proposal that could allow three dozen states to dump their radioactive waste in far West Texas, a ruling that sided with environmentalists and caught the state attorney general's office off guard.

State District Judge Jon Wisser issued a temporary restraining order against the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission, which is scheduled to vote Jan. 4 on rules that could expand how much waste could be processed at a dump in remote Andrews County.

The injunction was issued in the judge's courtroom late Thursday morning, shortly after environmentalists filed the request, with nobody there representing the commission. A few minutes later, shocked lawyers from the Texas Attorney General's Office - which hadn't been officially notified of the pending court action - showed up and persuaded the judge to order a new hearing on the injunction.

The hearing is set for Monday in Austin, one day before the commission's scheduled vote.

-- Reasons to DREAM again ...

The White House is preparing a major grassroots push to pass the DREAM Act next year, which President Obama said Wednesday was one of his top priorities after the legislation failed in the recent lame duck session. ...

On a conference call with journalists Wednesday, White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer said the President is willing to "wage a very public campaign" to push the DREAM Act, which would grant undocumented students who were brought into the United States as minors by their parents a path to citizenship through higher education or military service. He added that grassroots activism will be essential to success.

"The President always said on the campaign trail that change comes from the bottom up, and on issues like the DREAM Act, it has to, because there's some real resistance in Washington -- primarily in the other party, but some in our own -- and I think we're going to need to get people activated, and I think you'll see a lot of that over the next months and years," said Pfeiffer in response to a question from The Huffington Post.

During a news conference Wednesday, Obama said he will be reaching out to Republicans who may believe "in their heart of hearts" that passing the DREAM Act is the right thing to do but think the politics are tough.

"Well, that may mean that we've got to change the politics," said Obama. "And I've got to spend some time talking to the American people, and others have to spend time talking to the American people, because I think that if the American people knew any of these kids -- they probably do, they just may not know their status -- they'd say, of course we want you. That's who we are. That's the better angels of our nature."

"Grassroots push" means Obama for America will be recruiting volunteers to make calls, write LTE's and click petitions to sign. With Arizona-styled legislation on tap in many states -- in the Texas Lege, Leo Berman and Debbie Riddle have both pre-filed bills of this type -- only a few conscience-afflicted Republicans will be able to stop them from becoming law.

(By the way, have you read Debbie Riddle's new book on taking our country back to the 19th century? Its "simple, conversational style" makes it "easy to read" for even the most intellectually impaired TeaBagger.)

I believe that DREAM holds the one of the keys to Obama's re-election (the state of the nation's economy, of course, overriding all else).  It's a matter of triangulation: if he fights hard for it and the legislation gets passed, a large core of Hispanic voters will reward him -- and other Dems on the ballot in 2012 -- handsomely for doing so. If he fights for it and it goes down again, the conservatives by their words and actions will have cast themselves in the worst possible light. See Graham, Lindsey. And a slightly-less-large but still significant core of Hispanic voters and some disaffected independents will punish them for it.

Or should. But maybe won't, because they have decided to stay mad at Obama over his increased immigration enforcement policy. Over 800,000 have been deported during the past two years, far more than under the Bush administration, and I shouldn't need to write that this has not garnered any support from any Republican on any piece of immigration reform legislation. In fact Republican senators John McCain and Orrin Hatch both supported DREAM in the past but no longer do.

They are rightfully pissed at the five Democratic senators -- Hagan of North Carolina, Tester and Baucus of Montana, Pryor of Arkansas, and Nelson of Nebraska -- who were too cowed by the TeaBagger factions in their states (or because they are simply as bigoted as the Baggers themselves) to vote for DREAM last week. But throwing the baby out with the bathwater by not voting, or voting GOP, is a self-inflicted wound.

Latinos could -- how many times has this been written in the past fifteen years alone? -- have even greater influence in 2012, but it's pretty much all up to them. If they want to settle for another excuse not to turn out and vote, then the chances they will take with even more Republicans in charge two years from now are pretty dicey, IMO.

After the next legislative session, and after a year of Blake Farenthold as Congressman, somebody ask Latinos in Nueces County how that's working out for them.

Update: Res ipsa loquitur.

Congressional Republicans are pronouncing President Obama's proposal that the next Congress overhaul the country's immigration laws as dead before arrival.

T'was the work week before Christmas Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance is tracking reports of sugar plum sightings as it brings you this week's blog roundup.

Off the Kuff reminds you that expanded gambling is still doomed in the next legislative session.

The EPA Imminent and Substantial Endangerment Order to Protect Drinking Water in Southern Parker County has spawned a media frenzy but news sources only tell part of the story. TXsharon has a short timeline of events surrounding the water contamination that should change the conversation, at BLUEDAZE: Drilling Reform for Texas.

Led by the so-called "professional left", Texas Democrats locked Aaron Pena in the virtual town square stocks and hurled rotten tomatoes at him until he cried. "Call Out Aaron" Day was the social media hit of the holiday season, by all accounts (except Pena's). See PDiddie and Brains and Eggs for details.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wants to know how deluded you have to be to pick Dick Armey as Texan of the Year.

Neil at Texas Liberal ran the Dan Patrick family Christmas sugar cookie recipe that the senator posted on Facebook. In addition, Patrick announced an update on the Tea Party caucus in the Texas Legislature. After you eat enough of the Patrick cookies loaded with butter and sugar, you can go and die because the Tea Party Caucus made sure you had no health insurance.

Mean Rachel got really pissed off at Aaron Pena.

TexasVox went absolutely crazy covering the sunset hearings on the TCEQ and Railroad Commission this last week, and if you missed it, you can get caught up here.

Bay Area Houston has a message. Dear Aaron: Hispanics do not like cowards.